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A less-traditional Halloween Laura Busch Northern News Services Published Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Mildred Hall School continued a "big buddy black and orange day," pairing older and younger students for different activities.
"It's just kind of a tradition at this school," said Colleen Pura, assistant principal at the kindergarten to Grade 8 school, who added the Halloween theme day has been held at the school for at least three years.
Pura said the school encourages kids to wear black and orange instead of more traditional costumes to avoid having children feel left out if they couldn't put together a costume.
"You try to ... keep things so they don't make that gap between the rich and the poor even bigger," she said. "And you try to honour all of the kids to make everybody feel like they can be a part of it."
N.J. Macpherson School and the Montessori School also opted to promote a "black and orange" day rather than a costume party.
"The reason why we do (the black and orange day) is just because the day is pretty hectic as it is," said Tanya Murphy, executive director of Montessori School. "We have a party so the kids are doing a bunch of different activities. It just makes it a lot easier. They're not having to get out of their costumes and do painting or whatever it is."
Representatives at N. J. Macpherson School were unavailable to comment before press time, however, the school's October Newsletter stated the rationale for its alternative Halloween activities.
"This helps students who are afraid of masks and costumes, allows those who don't celebrate Halloween to continue to be a part of the class, and provides a calm and less stressful day for our students," it read.
Kindergarten students were allowed to wear simple costumes in the afternoon.
Yellowknife is not the only place in Canada where schools have been phasing out Halloween costumes. Some Ontario schools have banned Halloween costumes outright, leading to controversy as angry parents clashed with school administrators over the scheme.
Not all Yellowknife schools are ready to give up the ghost, however. Most celebrated the holiday the traditional way - complete with costumes.
"I think that you sort of have to allow for the fun of the day, while still making sure that the kids don't go over the line in terms of good taste," said Johnnie Bowden, assistant superintendent of learning for the Yellowknife Catholic Schools. "So, it's a fine line on Halloween."
J. H. Sissons also held a costume-party day on Monday. "It was regular costumes, but no fake blood, no weapons, nothing," said Nataly Depot, secretary for the school.
While the big buddy day certainly isn't the way many parents may remember spending Halloween, Mildred Hall hasn't received any protests from parents.
"We haven't had any parents complain," said Pura. "If a student wanted to wear a costume, they were welcome to wear a costume."
On Thursday, Oct. 27, Mildred Hall hosted a Halloween dance in the evening where students were welcome to dress up - or not - and have some fun in honour of the day.
"Kids can still go and do Halloween things with their parents in the evening and there's a lot of things to do," said Pura. "(We're) just trying to do something that everybody can celebrate but make it easy."
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